Piero Busso, with his bright young son Pierguido, is starting to drive quality to greater heights at this top-drawer family Barbaresco domaine. Founded by Guido Busso in the fifties, this domaine is based in Neive and has at its core some fine Nebbiolo vines planted in the Albesani vineyard opposite the winery. The estate's fine holdings don't stop there, however, also boasting parcels in the fabulous Gallina vineyard and Treiso's San Stunet. Winemaking is traditional here, long and slow, up to 45 days maceration on the skins, and ageing is in 25hl slavonian oak casks for two years. These will sweep you off your feet, bewitching high toned pure fruit and floral aspects are their hallmarks. Expressive and seductive, these are wines that have something to say about where they are from.
Vineyards of Piero Busso
Barbaresco Mondino
Offered for the first time in 2019, Busso’s Barbaresco Mondino comes from the MGA Balluri, abutting the northern edge of Albesani. At 180–220m, this parcel was originally known as “Bricco Mondino” to indicate its elevated position, and was first bottled as a single vineyard in 1985, their second cru wine after Albesani. Benefitting from the same southwest exposure as Albesani and Gallina, it has a more fruit-forward personality, allied to a winemaking process that accentuates its supple nature. Fermented in stainless steel and aged in 25hl barrels for 18 months, Mondino is the perfect introduction to the Busso style. The 2020 proffers lashings of fragrant, flattering cherries, kombucha, hyacinth, and black raspberry, with a succulent finesse to the tannins. Its freshness and joie de vivre mark it out as an outright delicious bottle.
Barbaresco Albesani-Borghese
Albesani is one of Neive’s flagship vineyards. Vigna Borghese is a sub-plot just in front of the Busso cellar, which plays home to the estate’s oldest vines. Today, the average vine age across their Albesani holdings works out at fifty years old, an impressive figure that makes its presence felt in the wine. Edgier and more vital, the 2019 sees a complex intermingling of both red and dark fruits, more berries than currants; blueberries, strawberry, cherry stones – all cut in crystal. On the finish, customary touches of balsamic and spice give a grown-up concentrated feel with a smooth tannic undertow and fine, shimmering acidity. A southwest-facing vineyard of 280 metres planted on sandy white limestone soils. Ageing is in 25 hl casks for 26 months.
Barbaresco San Stunet Pierguido describes San Stunet as “crazy steep, windy, and completely exposed. It is very hard to work but I really believe that it has the potential to be the next great cru of Barbaresco. Every year the grapes arrive in perfect health with great freshness – this is going to be the key as the years get warmer.” From the commune of Treiso, San Stunet is a southeast-facing vineyard at 400m altitude, one of the highest parts of Barbaresco. The soils are mostly limestone with some blue Marl. The site is late ripening, usually picked ten days after the others. Typically, the wine is livelier and more linear in structure than Busso’s other Barbarescos. Aged for two years in 25hl Slavonian oak casks.
Barbaresco Gallina
Gallina is the next ridge down from Albesani with the same southwest exposition. One of the great vineyards of the Langhe, Busso can count some very salubrious neighbours who have gradually moved in. A clay-dominated, southwest-exposed vineyard that faces the river, Gallina has a very windy microclimate despite it not being particularly high, at 240 metres altitude. Ageing is the same as for the other crus, two years in Slavonian oak casks, but it is kept an extra year in bottle before release.
Vintages of Piero Busso
2015 Vintage
A small but excellent vintage in Barbaresco, as Pierguido Busso puts it, “we had no hail and not too much rain, our only problem was the lack of quantity.” Through poor flowering and green harvests in July, as well as some harvest selections, the estate lost 40% of their crop. The wines, however, are mighty impressive and intense. Fresh and agile yet sufficiently deep and pleasingly ripe, these are impeccably balanced. Not perhaps the acute focus and concentration of 2013 but superb nonetheless. Such was the intensity of the wines that the estate decided to extend the ageing in barrel to 26 months from 24.
2016 Vintage
“A vintage that makes you happy,” according to Pierguido Busso, continuing, “the wines are like crystal air! It was easy to make wine in the vineyard, and it was a good crop. Like 2013 but more complete.”
Apart from Pierguido’s glowing praise, there is nothing else particular to say about this very steady, uneventful but ultimately ideal season. Picking began, as it traditionally should, in the middle of October. As usual, all Barbarescos were fermented in wooden “Tine” with 45 days submerged cap, followed by ageing for two years in large vats. The only tweak this year was the addition of 5-10% of stems, because everything was so ripe and perfectly healthy. A stellar lineup from what we believe to be the most exciting young winemaking talent in Barbaresco!
2017 Vintage
2017 was one of the driest of the last 15 years, but Pierguido Busso noted that “fortunately there were some cold September nights,” and, despite being an early harvest, he thinks 2017 is a “vintage of high quality.”
Picking began in the Albesani vineyard on September 18th, followed by San Stunet on September 22nd. This anticipated harvest meant that grapes were ripe whilst containing low pH and high acidities – a key element in achieving the drinkability that Pierguido looks for in his wines. As a result of the earlier harvest, the thinner skins, and the desire to extract gently, vinification was a little different than usual: shorter (only 25 days) and without employing the submerged cap method. The result is beautiful, elegant red-fruited wines of real freshness and delicate tannins.
This year also sees the long-awaited release of the extraordinary 2016 Gallina, which is always held back in bottle for a year, and, making its debut, the brilliant 2015 Gallina old vines cuvée.
2018 Vintage
2018 is “a warm vintage, approachable but the wines can age,” according to Pier Busso, who adds, “this is thanks to a good level of acidity, for me it’s a good vintage – wines that I like, though may not be a vintage to put in the cellar and forget about.”
And so much the better, as this Busso range, and the house style in general, is so fragrant and ravishing that they will be hard to resist young. The vintage was not without its challenges, particularly early season mildew, except in the windy San Stunet vineyard. Grapes were juicy and thinner-skinned than usual, so Pier adapted by extracting less – not employing the usual submerged cap technique and shortening ageing to 18 months instead of 24.
As for the two new 2016 VV releases, they come from a vintage that needs little introduction. They more than do the vintage's reputation justice; they are some of the most seductive examples we taste – in Pier's words, "2016 was a dream vintage, great conditions when you could wait for full ripeness."
2019 Vintage
Pierguido characterises the 2019 as “a great vintage similar to 2016 but with more sensuality. It was a classic year with a warm, but not too hot, summer and a long consistent autumn period essential for Nebbiolo.”
Allocations in the short term are reduced as the estate has opted to bottle two incredibly exciting black-label Riservas from Albesani and Gallina. They will be released in 2025. Gallina 2018, being offered this year, is pure pleasure on a plate; stylish, intricate, and harmonious, with a floating intensity, it lives long in the memory. There has never been a better time to buy into Busso.
2020 Vintage
The 2020 vintage was smaller than average here, amounting to 3,000 bottles (at best) per cru – a consequence of rigorous grape selections in the vineyard during harvest. Stylistically, Emanuela likens 2020 to 2018, noting that “2020 is a year of similar expression and drinkability, but they are brighter in feel with better structure and minerality. We have bottled our Riserva wines for release in a few years, which tells you that we believe in the quality.”
The wines were vinified in traditional wooden casks for around 40 days on the skins via submerged cap. The 2019 Gallina, always released after an extra year in bottle, saw 60-65 days. The wines are aged for two years in large barrels and released according to Barolo timelines.
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